Real solidarity for those fighting hate.

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Month August 2018

Remember a week ago when the Defence Fund sent some $ to a server in Louisville that lost her job after refusing to snitch on the antifa that handled some Proud Boys dickbags that showed up to her work to disrupt a DSA Louisville meeting and wound up sexually and racially harassing her all night? Well she sent us a lovely thank you note! It reads:

THANK YOU SO MUCH. I haven’t been able to find a job as of yet because I had to go out-of-state due to a family medical emergency, which sucks, so I really, REALLY appreciate this so much. I love y’all. Solidarity.

If you’ve donated to the Defence Fund, part of what you gave went to her, so this thanks is for you!

If you’re a member of DSA Louisville: last week we challenged to match our donation.

DSA Louisville wrote back to say that they’re working on it. But so far from what we can tell, not a dime from the democratic socialists that held an event without adequate security that resulted in a woman losing her job. It reminds us of a certain time when the DSA collected $200,000 for Charlottesville victims and then never gave anyone any of the money and couldn’t publicly account for what happened to the money, either (but did offer a bullshit apology almost a year later).

Louisville democratic socialists – talk is cheap, this woman needs help, your event ultimately resulted in her losing her job, and your organization already has an appalling track record of fucking over anti-fascists. Come on now.

A Portland Police Department flash bang grenade embedded in the back of a helmet warn by an antifascist protestor on August 4th. He nearly died.

If you’ve been following us for the last little while, you may have noticed a disturbing pattern of the police playing an increasingly-active role in trying to do harm to anti-fascists. Some highlights from the past two years:

Which brings us to the events in Portland of August 4th. Not to be confused with events there the month prior, where the police formed a line to protect alt-right bigots from anti-fascist counter-protestors but then fired flash bang grenades & pepper spray at the counter-protests to soften them up prior to letting waves of white supremacist goons run through their lines to attack counter-protestors , then run back to enjoy full police protection.

What no one expected was for a pack of white supremacist Proud Boy asshats to also show up to disrupt the meeting and harass poor M. all night. When they finally left, some Louisville antifascists engaged in a frank and honest discussion with them in the parking lot – a discussion which concluded with some Proud Boys going home in an ambulance. Cops were called. Cops asked M. to ID the people that came to deal with the problem. M. is not a snitch and did not snitch.

It’s becoming ever-more apparent that the police are serving as the lethally-armed wing of racist extremists in their efforts to arrest, injure, or get anti-fascists killed. That might sound like hyperbole if you haven’t been paying attention. From Sacramento to Seattle; from Hannover to NYC; from Newnan to Toronto; from Portland to Berkeley (to name some recent examples), the po-po can’t wait to help white supremacists to frame, assault, injure, and try to murder anti-fascists.

Then there was Berkeley earlier this month. Police there decided the best thing to do when white supremacists march in the streets was to attack, assault, and arrest as many of the 1000+ antifascists there to counter the march as possible. And immediately release photos and full names of the antifascists arrested on social media.

The Berkeley police received a ton of criticism for endangering the lives of the people they (falsely) arrested. But criticism doesn’t get the charges dropped or pay for your legal defence. It doesn’t help you find a safe place to live after neo-nazis have used your name to track down your address. And it doesn’t help you pay the bills when you can’t work because the kkkops broke your clavicle arresting you.

That was the situation D. found himself in after the events in Berkeley. He reached out to us for some help paying his bills while he’s off work with his cop-sustained injury. We were happy to help him out directly and would recommend that anyone reading this follow suit by kicking in to his crowdfunder.

Until some of the tax money spent on kkkops enabling them to arrest, assault, and endanger anti-fascists starts getting diverted to support anti-fascism (hey, we can dream!), The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund is going to need your support to help take care of the people putting themselves in harm’s way to thwart fascism. Here’s what you can do.

Police in Newnan, Georgia respond to the dangerous threat of non-violent, unarmed people wearing masks by pointing assault rifles at them, April 21, 2018

“No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” should replace “To Serve And Protect” on cop cars in Newnan, Georgia. This was certainly the lesson imparted on K, one of dozens of anti-fascists that arrived in that town on April 21st to counter a march of less than three dozen full-on neo-nazis. Also in town to ensure that literal nazis were able to march unimpeded through American streets were at least 400 heavily-armed cops (that’s right, about 10 cops for every single nazi shitbag in attendance; other estimates putting cop numbers that day at 700-800). The actions of the cops that day were characterized by one journalist on the scene as “the most over-aggressive policing I’ve ever seen.”

When the cops encountered antifa wearing masks, their response was to point assault rifles at them. That was the point that K decided the cops were getting out of hand, took off her mask, and tried to speak directly with the cops in an attempt to de-escalate a potentially lethal situation. Her reward? Being slammed to the ground and tackled by cops and hauled away under arrest, held in jail for 30 hours, and being fined.

As a result of trying to stop a police riot from claiming the lives of her friends and neighbours, K. has been left with a fairly hefty lawyer’s bill and a small-ish court fine. She reached out to the Defence Fund for some help with this costs and we’re happy to say that we were able to help her with about 40% of her costs. If we had enough money, we would have gladly paid the full tab.

Help us makes sure we can pay the full tab for the next K. that comes to us after being harmed for trying to stop their friends and allies from being murdered by the cops or for standing up to nazis literally marching in the streets – make a donation to the Defence Fund today!